Courses

Geodatabases (3 ECTS credits) – A spatial database is a database that is optimized to store and query data that represents objects defined in a geometric space. Most spatial databases allow representing simple geometric objects such as points, lines and polygons. While typical databases are designed to manage various numeric and character types of data, additional functionality needs to be added for databases to process spatial data types efficiently. In this course you will learn how to build and manage a geodatabase.

Biodiversity and Biotechnology (2 ECTS credits) – Biodiversity is most commonly used to replace the more clearly defined and long established terms, species diversity and species richness. Biologists most often define biodiversity as the totality of genes, species, and ecosystems of a region. An advantage of this definition is that it seems to describe most circumstances and presents a unified view of the traditional three levels at which biological variety has been identified:

species diversity

ecosystem diversity

genetic diversity

In this course you will learn the basics of biodiversity as well as its application to biotechnology.

Cartography (3 ECTS credits) – Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively. In this course you will learn to set the map’s agenda and select traits of the object to be mapped, represent the terrain of the mapped object on flat media. This is the concern of map projections, eliminate characteristics of the mapped object that are not relevant to the map’s purpose, reduce the complexity of the characteristics that will be mapped. This is also the concern of generalization, and orchestrate the elements of the map to best convey its message to its audience.

Environmental Change (2 ECTS credits) – The environment is a system that is constantly changing. Forces that drive these changes include naturally occuring drivers (volcanoes, earthquakes, etc.) as well as human interactions with the environment. In this course, you will learn about both the natural and human induced changes of the environment.